How Far Is Greece from Canada?

Toronto, Ontario, Canada — a travel of a lifetime, 1 that seemed — and genuinely was — distant, particularly erstwhile speaking of migration conditions successful the mid-1960s. At that time, hundreds of thousands of Greeks, successful the years aft the war, chose to permission their homeland by vessel for Canada, searching for their ain “promised land.”

The voyage lasted astir a period earlier they yet arrived “on the different broadside of the world,” carrying with them thing but the anticipation of a amended life. They were first-generation migrants, seeking enactment without adjacent knowing the language. They struggled, they persevered, and they stayed. Today, galore of them — if not astir — stay there, having built lives that see children, grandchildren, and adjacent great-grandchildren, on with businesses, property, and, supra all, a “second” homeland.

My caller sojourn to Toronto offered the accidental to conscionable respective members of the Greek diaspora — first, second, and 3rd generation. From the precise archetypal encounter, I felt their hospitality, their warmth, and their enduring emotion for the state they oregon their parents near behind. The much clip I spent with them, the much I wanted to larn astir their lives, past and present. Eager to unfastened some their homes and their hearts, they shared stories of their migration — often achy and uncertain — the challenges of adapting and surviving, arsenic good arsenic the lives they person built implicit the decades.

The Greek assemblage successful Toronto strives to stay united. In galore ways, everyone knows each other, offering enactment and feeling bound by a “family-like” connection, adjacent if it is simply rooted successful their shared heritage. As galore pointed out, the hardships they faced erstwhile they archetypal acceptable ft “abroad” brought them unneurotic and taught them to basal by 1 another. It is simply a “habit” that has endured for much than six decades.

What genuinely defines Toronto’s Greeks is their deep-rooted emotion for Greece — whether oregon not they ever lived determination — and their determination to sphere their traditions, customs, and values. And they win successful doing so. Large Sunday household gatherings diagnostic Greek nutrient and afloat attendance of relatives. Weddings, celebrations, festivals, and assemblage events travel live with Greek folk, traditional, and fashionable music.

Most stay profoundly religious, attending 1 of the sixteen Greek Orthodox churches built crossed Ontario each Sunday. As for Greece itself, they marque definite to sojourn astatine slightest erstwhile a year, portion staying successful interaction with relatives backmost location astir regular by phone.

Source: tovima.com